I can say quite candidly that I expected the Intel D850GB to be a stable Pentium 4 motherboard that did would not outperform the MSI 850Pro2. What we saw from the benchmarks however showed us that in addition to making a very powerful processor, Intel has also managed to produce a very competitive motherboard that can easily hold its own.

The downside is of course that the D850GB offers no tweakable settings to the performance user or overclocker, while on the other hand the MSI 850Pro2 comes packed to the gills with them. Apart from this, and the inclusion of only one serial port the D850GB is an excellent P4 solution.

The board is well laied out, and Intel does include some useful hardware monitoring applications in a package that retails for about $150 USD. I would suggest that non-overclockers looking for a good platform for their socket 423 Pentium 4 consider this board.

Sure the onboard added-value features are slight, but armed with a good video and sound card you could easily bring this motherboard up to an attractive position. The performance is there, and in terms of stability, this board is superb.